Apparatus for mixing dry materials



May 29, 1923.

T. O. PARTRIDG E APPARATUS FOR MIXING DRY MATERIALS Filed Dec. 16, 1922Patented May 29, 1923. I

1 NIT-l stares momso'rwn PARTRIDGE', or NORTH s-Yn1\T-nY, 'NEwsonrnwatssqauswaamr.

.. APPARATUS roe M XING DRY MAT-Earlene;

--imp tation"neat-manta re, 1922. Seria1No. 607',4 46;

T 0 all whom 2'25 may concern:

I Be it known that I, THoMAsO'rwAY PAR- rnrnon, a: subject .of the King.of-G-reat Britain and Ireland, residingat St. Leonards, North Sydney, inthe'State of New South ales, Commonwealth of Australia,

have invented certainxnew and useful Imcessfully used for mixing andblending tea or coffeeor other similar materials. The objectof the";invention is to provide a means of mechanically mixingldry or sem d-rymaterial which is continuous andauto- 'maticand whichdoes: not requireany cornplicated machinery or consume excessive power as in suitablecases gravity may be used to advantage. l 1 Theinvention comprisesawseries of conveyor belts arranged to" discharge from one to the otherin rotation each successive belt running at a reduced speedto thepreceding one. The width of each beltvaries inversely as its speed. Thebelts may be arranged in any convenient manner either stepped end to endwith all the belts travelling in the same direction or each alternateone travelling in the reverse direction or along the sides of a hollow,square or in a zig zag d1 rection or a combination of any or all of theabove arrangements, the essential being that each belt delivers thematerial thereon to an underlying belt that is travelling at a reducedspeed. Means for altering the inclination of and for driving each beltat a difierent speed are provided so that when materials of a highspecific gravity are being mixed the belts may be inclined down to wardsthe delivery end to utilize gravity to save power and conversely forlight materials so that they may be further mixed by the tendency forthe'materialto roll back.

down the belt. 1 For mixing materials of widely different specificgravity the belts would be run in a horizontal position to avoid thenatural tendency towards separation.

One means for:

invention is illustrated in theaccompanying drawlngs which arediagrammatic and in which: i

,Figure 1 is a side elevation of an arrangement offourbeltsendtoend} .1

Figure 2 is a sectionalv sideelevation of same. H 3 Y V Figure 3 is aplan o'fsame,

The dry-materials it, to b mi xedare fed by any well known and suitablemeans e xfr h p e nfesthe. first p er belt 6'wh1ch is moving at amoderate speed in, the direction shown by the arrows.. This .belt is.operated from its'forwardi'en'd in any well. known way such as byapulley and belt drive and is adapted to be inclined byllowering orraising the rear end in a-rad-ial slot 8 .or byany othenmeans.

greater wvidth and is runningin the. seine direction 1 at a slowerspeed. J Q This belt. 1 is driven from the forward,end suitablearrangement such as a belt: 10Ifrom a pulley 11 on the driving shaft1210f the revious belt to, apulley 13 onthe driving shaft 14 thesecondconveyor 'belt 9. Tliisarrange 4 m'ent, may be replaced by any-other method which will ensure .Qtlia t ,the r tes between the speeds Yof the; ee' ve ba beitstefagna ,9. is

constant.

A third com-6516i" Belt" 1 5" iaidei i'i s 'second belt-9. This belt 15is driven atfa slower speed and is Wider than belt 9. The ratio betweenthe speeds of belts 9 and 15 is also kept constant by any suitablemeans.

A fourth conveyorbelt .16 underlies beyond the third belt 15 and isdriven'ina similar manner. This belt 16 is also wider hoppers 5 in theright proportions and roughly mixed by falling on the upper part of thefirst'co-nveyo-r belt which is moving and driven at a slower speed thanbelt 15. Su1tably positioned under the end of belt 'as' shown in Figure2. As the beltmoves forward the material forms a layer and onreachingtheforward end the material falls vertically onto the next belt9 whichis moving at a slower rate, e. g., the ratio between the speedsof successive belts may be 2 to 1.

- The effect of the transfer from belt to belt 75 y :The forward end ofthe belt. ;6t;overlaps" an underlying belt 9 which jsfof .a slightly isthat any twoparticles of the material which may have been lying oneabove the other on the first belt would now be lying side by side on thesecond belt and if the speed ratio is 2 to 1 the quantity per unitlength on the second belt would be double that on the first belt.

The material is then moved along and dumped onto the third belt wherethe relative position of the particles is again changed and where thequantity per unit length is again doubled.

On arriving on the fourth belt which is still further decreased in speedand increased in width the material is disturbed again and ultimatelyfalls into the receiving hopper 17. In practice the belts would bearranged as found most suitable for the location and as well as actingas mixers would be of use in conveying the materials from floor to fiooror from machine to machine in a factory.

The length of the belts is immaterial and need only be sufficient toreceive and deliver the material unless governed by other considerationssuch as the distance to or from the points of delivery and discharge.

The capacity of the machine is governed by the speed and Width of thebelts and for a given capacity and constant speed ratio betweensuccessive belts the width of the belts would have to be increased sothat the product of the speed and the area of material conveyed would beconstant at every point.

' For example :For a constant speed ratio of 2 tol between belts afspeedof 64 feet per minute and width of 6 inches for the first belt and angleofrepose of material of degrees the following Widths of successive beltswould be necessary.

Capacity of first belt pertoot run 108 0. inches, 1. e., 6912 cub. ins.per minute.

and so on.

The belt speed ratio may be altered by any Well known means according tothe material to be mixed.

Provided the width of the belts is suflicient the speed ratio betweeneach successive pair of belts need not be the same, e. g., the firstratio may be 2 to l, the second 3 to 2, and so on using speeds and speedratios which would be most suitable for the quantity and quality of thematerial to be mixed.

I claim 1. An apparatus for mixing dry materials comprising a series ofconveyor belts arranged to discharge from one to the other in rotation,each successive belt being wider than the preceding one, and means fordriving the belts at successively reduced speeds.

2. An apparatus for mixing dry materials comprising a series of conveyorbelts arranged to discharge from one to the other in rotation, the widthof each successive belt varying inversely to its speed and means fordriving the belts at successively reduced speeds.

In testimony whereof he has aflixed his signature in presence of twowitnesses.

THOMAS OTWAY PARTRIDGE.

lVitnesses i T. C. ALLEN, Jr., N. M. GODDARD.

